When it comes to making sales, once just isn't enough for big publishers and record labels. Publishers, Hollywood, and the music industry--many of the same folks who brought you SOPA and PIPA--are trying new tactics to control what we can do with copyrighted material after we buy it.

Yesterday morning, the Free Software Foundation crashed the Windows 8 launch event in New York City. A cheerful GNU and her team handed out DVDs loaded with Trisquel, FSF stickers, and information about our new pledge, which asks Windows users to upgrade not to Windows 8, but to GNU/Linux.

The nomination window for the 15th annual Free Software Awards is open. Now is your chance to show some love for your favorite free software hero or an inspiring project that uses free software or free
software principles to benefit humanity.

Today the Free Software Foundation is proud and excited to assist the GNU MediaGoblin project in its fundraising effort. MediaGoblin's volunteer team is working on a next-generation social web system where users will share their experiences through photos, videos and audio, all without running proprietary software. This project is ambitious, not just because it will support multiple media types, but also because it will use a special new network system called federation, which unifies a group of separately-owned servers into a single interface for the user. This means that anyone wishing to start a MediaGoblin server will be able to do so, optionally customizing the code to their needs and offering unique options to users.

Hampshire student and FSF campaigns organizer Kira shares the success of their ambitious project to help fellow students get started with free software. The achievements of Kira's organization, LibrePlanet/Students for Free Culture, is exciting and replicable outside of Hampshire. Kira provides suggestions to help other students realize the same changes at their schools.

If the corrupt European Patent Office succeeds in imitating America's software patent system, it will be a disaster for software development. Join April, the FSF's French ally, in calling for strong legislation against software patents in Europe.